Nagpur: Ex-BJP MLA and recent re-entrant in the Congress, Ashish Deshmukh, has said the recent remarks by city MP and Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari praising Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru are confusing. He pointed out that the BJP, to which Gadkari belongs, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi lose no opportunity to speak ill of the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty. Desperate to be in the news himself, Deshmukh wondered if Gadkari would also approve of Rahul Gandhi’s leadership and accept the stand taken by the Congress president on Rafale scam.
“It’s time Gadkari explains his position clearly,” said Deshmukh, adding that he was just voicing the concerns of people of Nagpur. “Or may be the continuous humiliation within the party was responsible for Gadkari’s recent utterance. Some time ago he had said in an interview that jobs were not available, so reservation was of no use. He had also famously told Nana Patekar in a chat that the BJP went on a promising spree in 2014 since they never expected to get elected at the Centre.
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Wednesday 12 March 2025
More recently, he had said that those responsible for the BJP’s poor performance in elections to five states must own it up.,” said Deshmukh. The ex-MLA said Gadkari was sidelined by the BJP and not given any important post in the election set up for 2019 elections. “This is in contrast to 2014, when Gadkari was asked to draft the party’s vision document.
Now, he has been made an ordinary member of the committee tasked with interacting with NGOs,” said Deshmukh, who is fancying chances of contesting against Gadkari from the city in the coming elections. Talking to reporters, Deshmukh also demanded that 105 acre land at MIHAN given to Reliance for building Dassault spares under Rafale offset clause be taken away from the Ambani company, and handed over to Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) so that the Rs6,000 crore investment stays here and youth get employment.
